Mozilla recently announced a change to its default cookie policy for Firefox that will help protect users against unwanted tracking by invisible third parties. In short, a user will have to intentionally interact with a site in order for the site to be able to set a tiny snippet of data used for identification purposes known as a "cookie" on the user's machine.

Facebook subsidiary Instagram recently revised their terms of service, adding a few controversial new terms that will allow the company to monetize your photos. They broadened the license you give to the photo-sharing service to allow Instagram to sub-license your photos, adding a broad grant of permission:

To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

This week, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is hosting the 25th Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/25). The agenda is focused, as it should be, on finalizing a longstanding discussion: the need for an international instrument to protect the rights of visually impaired persons and persons with print disabilities. Copyright protections create barriers for people with disabilities, yet big publishers continue to block efforts to create exceptions to remedy the problem even as hundreds of millions of people would stand to benefit worldwide.

Conduct remote searches on local and foreign computers to collect evidence

Delete data on remote computers in order to disable the accessibility of “illegal files.”

Requesting assistance from the country where the targetted computer(s) were located would be "preferred" but possibly not required. These proposals are alarming, could have extremely problematic consequences, and may violate European human rights law. As if that wasn't troubling enough, lurking in this letter was a request for something more extreme:

If the location of a particular computer cannot be determined, the Dutch police would be able to break in without ever contacting foreign authorities.

What would cause the “location of a particular computer” not to be determinable?